Oasis of the Seas - with a 1 year old! (March 5-12)

[ggooglyboogly]

Hey everyone - I read a lot of helpful reviews on the Oasis for my first cruise on an Oasis class ship (went right to Park Cafe for roast beef on day 1 like an old pro) but didn't see many reviews for people sailing with a 1 year old, so here's my offering.

 

My wife and I are from the NW Suburbs of Chicago and go on about two cruises per year, usually with NCL, but I've always wanted to try the Oasis class so we gave it a go!

 

Pre - Cruise: We flew down from Milwaukee to Orlando and spent the day having a birthday party for my son, we have a lot of family in Central Florida, so this was a nice way to celebrate with them. I stayed with my brother that night, so I dont have any hotel tips, but if you live in the NW Chicago suburbs, you're closer to Milwaukee airport than you think, prices are comparable to Midway (I always fly Southwest, they're not at O'hare) and the parking is only $13/day.

 

Day 1: We drove (my mom's car, she came on the cruise with us) from Orlando over to Port Canaveral, arriving to the port around 1130, the ride was free and clear, basically until we were near the Oasis, then everything screeched to a halt and it was basically a half hour to go the length of the ship and get into the parking garage, once we parked and got everything situated, it was a short walk to the terminal and everything in there was pretty organized. I'd say it was about a half hour from when we left the car to when we walked on the ship, which is great for what I would consider a peak time to board. Once on board, we went to the Park Cafe and had some roast beef! These were quite tasty. While the rest of the family was eating, I ran up to the babysitting room (deck 14 FWD) and booked two nights of babysitting, they'll let you book 15 hours initially, we only booked 8. After lunch we decided to go around an explore, the whole ship is so impressive, I would often during the week just walk around and enjoy the ship itself (especially the glass elevators, i hate that most ships these days have gotten away from big open atriums). We wound up at the Boardwalk and let my son run around for a while, they had these little boats with steering wheels on them and he LOVED those, and played in them for a while. After the boat drill (our muster station was at the boardwalk!!) we set sail out of Port Canaveral. My favorite part of the cruise is usually the sailaway, sitting up on deck with a drink and watching the sunset and the land fade away behind me, we headed up to the pool deck, my son fell asleep and we enjoyed the sailaway for a while. I booked dinner at Chops for that night so we went down to our room to change (we had an oceanview balcony, pretty typical compared to most balcony rooms I've had on other lines - great water pressure in the shower). Chops was fantastic, I had the thick cut bacon, crab & shrimp cake and the filet mignon. My son, fresh from his nap, made it though the 90 minute meal smiling and enjoying himself, he had mashed potatoes and roasted chicken. On our first cruise with him, when he was 6 months old, we pretty much had to eat in shifts, so we were surprised that he handled this dinner so well! After dinner, we just walked around the Royal Promenade for a while until my son got tired and went to bed. Great first day on board!

[ggooglyboogly]

Day 2 - Nassau: Growing up, I lived in South Florida and went on 3 cruises a year, usually two 3 days and 7 days, so I've been to Nassau dozens and dozens of times. I also went to a maritime college and on sea term one year, I spent 4 days there, despite that, I still always like to go at least go for a walk. I woke up at 6, my son actually slept through the night and was still sleeping at this point (actually a note on my room selection here, we specifically chose a room as high and as close to the stairs as we could, wound up on deck 14, because if my son woke up in the night and was upset for more than a couple minutes, we could take him up and walk him around the pool to minimize the impact on our neighbors, this strategy has worked on two cruises for us, and we'll keep going with it) and went for a walk around the pool deck, the Solarium was a great place to watch the approach to Nassau. After berthing, I went to meet up with my wife and son and we went to the Park Cafe for bagels. I have to tell you, I've never had prosciutto on a bagel, but I could certainly get used to it! They had plastic cups with fresh fruit in them that my son LOVED, he would go through two of them at breakfast. At this point of the cruise, the Park Cafe wasn't too crowded, however as the week went on, more people discovered it and the line was out the door. After breakfast we went down to Nassau and walked over towards Junkanoo beach, we hung out there for a little while, and then went to a favorite spot of mine, the Pirate bar, it's on the way back from Junkanoo. It has a big open courtyard so my son was able to run around for a little while, the staff there, all in pirate garb, were very nice to him. After this, we made our way back to the ship, and I took my son to the Boardwalk to run around and play on the little boats, other children had discovered them by then, but while i kept a close eye on things, they were naturally cautious around my son. We went back to the room for my son's afternoon nap and watched the sailaway from Nassau, the shiphandling was impressive, you're within 100ft of the rocks coming out of the harbor so, as a former mariner, this was exciting to me. We didn't plan anything for dinner that night, I suppose this is a good time to say we had my time dining and didn't go to the MDR once, I actually can't remember the last time i went to an MDR on the cruise, I think maybe 4-5 years ago on the NCL Epic? Its just not my thing. This night we went down to Sabor and it was fantastic, they actually have a machine that makes fresh tortillas, so when you order tacos, they'll go over to the machine and get the tortillas fresh and they're fantastic. The fillings are all great as well. They also make fresh guacamole that's 100% customizable, so we had that, tacos and a margarita. After another well behaved dinner by my son (who had a cheese quesadilla) we took him up to the playroom in the kids area on deck 14. This was a very well appointed room and my son had a nice time playing in there for a while, they have toys that range from 6 months to i'd say 4/5 years or so, it's nice to have this room as an option. After that we all went to bed!

[ggooglyboogly]

Day 3 - At Sea: When we were departing Nassau, the captain said that it was going to be windy and rough on the way down to St Thomas, and he wasn't wrong. We all woke up together and went to the Park Cafe for breakfast, we all had the same thing, and then went up to the pool deck, when we cruise with my mom, we pretty much always pick out a spot where we can always meet up, on the Oasis, it was up on the pool deck near kids pool, they have an area on the starboard side with tables and chairs. It was VERY windy, so much so they closed deck 16 (top most outdoor deck), we were still able to hang out in our spot, my son liked walking around the deck and the pool attendants did a great job keeping the deck as dry as possible, even with the poor weather. It was still an enjoyable morning, we could all still see the ocean and were enjoying being together, some wind isn't going to stop that! Around lunch time we went down to the Boardwalk to get a hot dog at the Boardwalk Dog House, this line always moved quickly and the hot dogs were great! I would stop here more times than i would like to admit throughout the cruise. We then watched the Sexiest Man in the Universe contest or whatever they call it, and it was a lot of fun, no matter how many times you see a similar event on a cruise, the people who participate always make it unique. After this we took my son up to the playroom until he got tired and ready for his afternoon nap. We had babysitting reservations this night so we got ready in the room, took him to babysitting, where they gave us a handyphone and we went to the Schooner Bar for a drink and then dinner at Giovanni's Table. I had the prosciutto and mozzarella bake, spinach and ricotta crepes and Maryland crab raviolis w/ sweet corn sauce, all fantastic, and then just as we were about to order dessert, the phone rang, my son had thrown up at babysitting and while i waited to pay at Giovannis, my wife ran up to get him. On cruise ships these days, they're very concerned over possible GI issues, and I get it, so I met my wife up there, and we grabbed him, he was a little upset from throwing up, but he was back to his normal self by the time we walked out of there, he's not his normal self if he's sick. They do have protocols in places for when a baby throws up to return him to babysitting (aka see the nurse), but seeing as he was back to normal we just went back to the room for the night, the nurse did call and when we said he was back to his normal self, she was happy. What wound up happening was he was almost asleep, and another baby screamed, and that set him off, and worked himself up so much that he threw up, and even though he was there for almost two hours, they still only charged us for one. The youth staff was so professional and handled everything really well. Good time to mention they have a Dreamworks channel which plays Dreamworks movies the whole cruise, and the Adventure ocean channel which plays kids shows, so we put that on for our son and he went to sleep.

[TryingCruising]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks for sharing! We hope to take our toddler on a cruise one day so I'm enjoying reading the perspective of cruising with your little one.

[ggooglyboogly]

Day 4 - St Thomas: We woke up around 6 and took my son down to the Boardwalk to run around, the ship is basically a ghost town until 730-8 in the morning (some people sleep in on vacation?) so it was a good time for my son to run around. We went to the Park Cafe for breakfast and then due to the later arrival (scheduled for 11am) we went up to the pool deck to watch the arrival. After the ship docked, we went to the Park Cafe for lunch and then went ashore to meet up with our tour. We went on the Kon Tiki tour, which is basically a large catamaran decorated like a tiki hut, before the cruise i contacted the tour director directly and they confirmed that it was a good tour for families and they had life jackets for babies on board. We boarded the Kon Tiki and they took us to a reef (they have glass bottom tanks on board) and let you have a look around for a bit, then they bring you up to Honeymoon beach, which was beautiful and not overcrowded. We took my son in the water and he had a great time splashing around, and then running around in the sand before passing out from all the excitement for the return trip. Before returning to the Oasis, they go over to the Havensight docks to drop off those passengers, and then give a brief history of St Thomas from Havensight back to the Oasis dock. They also do a limbo contest which was a lot of fun, the guys who work on the boat can do some impressive stuff with the limbo. When we got back on the ship, we went to the boardwalk and they were getting ready to show the Oasis of dreams diving show, each of which had been cancelled up until this point, so we got some Ben and Jerrys and sat down to watch the show, which at one point had top be stopped because the diving boards wouldn't go down, and then stopped entirely for rain! After this we went inside and went up to the buffet for dinner, it was great! The guy running the buffet would come around and make balloon animals for the kids, my son loved it, he even took out a violin to sing happy birthday to a little girl. People like that are what really can make a cruise special for someone, I do regret not remembering his name for my post-cruise survey. After this we spent some time on the Royal Promenade, they had a great band and my son loves music, he was laughing and clapping...until he wasn't, which made it time for bed. My wife was tired that night too so they went to bed and I went to the casino for a bit with my mom and donated some money to RCCL. After that i grabbed some pizza at Sorrentos and went to bed!

[skyking]

Did you use the nursery? Do you by chance have any of the daily if you did?

[ggooglyboogly]

Did you use the nursery? Do you by chance have any of the daily if you did?

 

I did not get a daily - sorry

[ggooglyboogly]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks for sharing! We hope to take our toddler on a cruise one day so I'm enjoying reading the perspective of cruising with your little one.

 

Its certainly different, but I've taken my son on two lines and the crew members really go out of their way to make the little ones smile, so I've had a lot of fun with it, we've got another one booked for December already, then probably a Disney cruise next Feb.

[Woodmnky]

Thank you for the review. We have been cruising with our son since his first birthday and love hearing about other's experiences with young kids.

 

Can you tell me more about the playroom? Open all the time, limited hours, ECT? I assume that parents can stay and play with the kids. My son isn't cool going to the club by himself, so a family play area sounds great.

[ggooglyboogly]

Thank you for the review. We have been cruising with our son since his first birthday and love hearing about other's experiences with young kids.

 

Can you tell me more about the playroom? Open all the time, limited hours, ECT? I assume that parents can stay and play with the kids. My son isn't cool going to the club by himself, so a family play area sounds great.

 

It was open from 9am - 9pm, and yeah we were in there with him whenever we were there. 70-80% of the floor is covered with mats (my son found one of the tile sections to fall one one day - he was fine), but its a big room and there's a wide range of toys to cover 6mos - 4/5 years. It's a really nice space.

[eknowlton]

Enjoying your posts. We leave on Oasis in 2 1/2 weeks with our 4 year old and 6 month old, so I am taking notes. Keep the details coming!! I have reservations about using the babysitting service for my 6 month old...any information on this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Pennyscandy]

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